


nightmare child

by deeo



Category: Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Genre: Canon Jack, Jack/Ralph is rather implied than blatant, M/M, Monster Jack, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Shortly after they embark the ship, They are thirteen, dark oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21706255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deeo/pseuds/deeo
Summary: “You’re so much more precious than Roger too.”
Relationships: Jack Merridew/Ralph
Comments: 3
Kudos: 91





	nightmare child

Ralph sees him at the door in one night, a few days after boarding the ship. The moonlight creeps through the window of his cabin and casts an almost unearthly glow on him. His face is half covered in darkness and it seems as if he’s materialized out of the shadows.

He is thin, but his body is roughened by the physical strain that he’s done on the island; when he hunted and carried his prey, alone at times. When he pushed huge boulders to fortify his favourite construction. Castle Rock. He had called it his kingdom.

Despite his malnourishment, he is bigger and stronger than Ralph now. Ralph can see it. He has started as scrawny and lanky, while Ralph was the burly one. Now the fair boy is just a shadow of what he’s once been. A pale strip, so thin that the wind could just carry him and take him further.

His usually fiery hair is much darker in the night and his burnt skin seems paler. He closes in on Ralph and offers him a smile and Ralph only sees evil. He brings his sheets to his chin and widens his eyes as the slightly older boy sits on the edge of his bed. Ice-blue eyes glinting with a barely noticeable satisfaction as he observes the frailty of the other boy. 

“These clothes are ridiculously big.” He starts, nonchalant, like they’re right at the beginning of their once existent, so-called friendship. Like absolutely nothing happened. He wears a much larger, dark green shirt and trousers of a muddy color. He studies Ralph’s enormous parka. “Hm. It seems like they’ve given you bigger clothes, too.”

Ralph feels like screaming. He tries not to visibly shake under his intense gaze, he tries not to bolt as the other boy lifts his hand and caresses the soft, pale hair at the top of his head. He counts every moment and grits his teeth, his nails almost digging into his clammy palms through the material of the covers.

“You look cold, Ralph.” He doesn’t look concerned, but more like he has something in mind. “I would go back to my cabin, but it would be boring.” The corners of his mouth slightly go up in a derisive half-smile. “And Roger is always so depressing. I do believe it would be better if we just stuck together for the night, don’t you?” It’s a rhetorical question. Ralph knows he doesn’t expect an answer to it; he doesn’t actually care about his opinion, about what he wants or feels.

His weary eyes turn even bigger as the other boy moves closer. He wants to open his mouth and yell at him to go away. Scream after someone. Scream for help. He can’t. An unseen rope tightens around his throat and his mind is frozen in terror. He cannot even react, let alone protest.

The redheaded boy slips under the covers, next to him, and brings a heavy arm over the fair boy’s slight form. Pulls him into an embrace. He can’t even breathe anymore.

“You’re so much more precious than Roger too.” He tiredly comments, lightly trailing feather-like fingers over the small of the fair boy’s back. “Cuter and softer.” He simply tucks the smaller boy under his chin and his breath soon falls steady after that. He falls asleep like he has no worries in the world. As if the child that he’s currently holding is not in agony, right there in his arms. Shrieking inside his head, wanting to rip his own hair out, maim himself until he falls into unconsciousness, so that he won’t see or hear him anymore. That beast of a boy that has shattered him into pieces.

He doesn’t fall asleep. He’s still as a statue the whole night, he doesn’t even try to move himself from there. Just listens to the redheaded boy’s heart and almost cannot believe that he’s as much of a human as he is.

He comes in the following night as well. And the next. And the next.

Ralph is even frailer when they depart. Malnourished and deprived of sleep. He hasn’t slept in many nights, ever since Jack first came into his cabin.

He tries not to look at him when they leave the ship, but the devil has to gather his attention. Has to suck more life out of him with each and every moment in which he still breathes.

Their eyes meet one last time. Ocean blue and winter blue, and the fiery boy fiendishly smiles at him, ripping the last piece of the sanity that the fair boy is left with. Making sure that he will be remembered.

Leaving him with nothing but torment for the rest of his days.


End file.
